Ahh the Spleen. Many have heard me prattle on about “the Spleen” for years and hear me say crazy things like drink warm water, chew your food, don’t eat dairy first thing in the morning. If you’re like me and love eating but want to maintain my health, then it becomes necessary to protect the two organs as the primary constituents of digestion (Spleen and Stomach). If you’ll indulge me and let me digress to the story of why this blog post originated…
My home made TCM study tool - The Five Elements Theory.
I’m thinking that 2011 is the year I’ll go back to finish my degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Being the opportunist I am, I put my degree on the backburner for 2010 to take advantage of a better offer while also temporarily satiating my travel bug and starting up foodiecure – my ever evolving, pulsating, fluctuating gourmet food and health-maitenance business. The only thing remaining on my 2010 to-do list is attend the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York. Obviously not going to happen in 2010…
Anyway, I want 2011 to be “different”. I have a perpetual underlying feeling that time is getting away from me and have this dire need to make every moment count. With this need to progress, my thoughts have turned back to the golden piece of paper (insert flashing lights effect and booming cosmic voiceover) which will inherently open up doors and give me some formal cred out there on the street. With a year of not-quite-debauchery behind me, I fear that I’ve lost a lot of content and so I’ve come to write up this case study…that, and because JB and I struck a deal to trade one of his landscape photographs for eating plan and tongue diagnosis (and letting me blog about it!).
Looking at tongues in Chinese Medicine is a way to diagnose what’s going on internally, which in turn highlights what’s going on externally and emotionally. It’s really quite interesting when you think about it. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then the tongue is the window to the mechanics of the body.
Understanding TCM
To help you understand a little about Chinese Medicine, you have to look at the way the medicine diagnoses and views the body as completely different from western medicine. The diagram above is my study tool I made of the Five Element Theory. Each season has corresponding colours, organs, areas of the body, tastes (the list is ongoing). Sounds whacko, but it makes sense and works once you get a grasp of it.
When reading the diagnosis below, keep an open mind. We think in Western Medicine the Spleen has nothing to do with digestion and everything about immunity. Five thousand years ago the Chinese did not have the technology we have today. In poetic, esoteric fashion they’ve linked the organs to certain functions and treat based off thousands of years of observation, meditational enlightenment and trial and error. It’s primitive, yes, but it works.
Case Study – JB
JB's tongue
The most pronounced indications I see here are:
- Peeled tongue coating indicates a Stomach Yin deficiency
- Tooth Marked sides indicating a Spleen Qi deficiency
- Pale sides indicating Liver Blood deficiency
In layman’s terms this means JB needs to work on his digestion. Even though the Stomach is responsible for receiving food, in TCM it is the Spleen has an energetic function to transform this food into energy – known as Qi in TCM – and then transport the energy up to the lungs to be dispersed throughout the body. It is also through our diets that we build our blood…if stocks are low, then Liver Blood levels are low since the Liver is responsible for storing the blood.
This may sound all like gobbledygook to you, but these signs have very real implications. In JB’s case, he’s wanting to loose weight that is hard to budge considering he’s an active surfer and regards his diet as healthy. This is classic Spleen deficiency. What is happening is the food is not being transformed into Qi (or being processed properly) and thus waste is not being expelled efficiently. Instead of transforming to Qi the food stagnates and transforms into toxins which gets stored in fat tissues in a condition called damp. This is all that extra padding most people find that they cannot budge from their lower abdomen (spare tyre condition) and is often accompanied by irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) that doctors are often unable to explain/treat.
Stomach Yin Deficiency is a lack of stomach fluid to be able to aid in the physical digestion. The resulting symptoms can be any combination of the following*; no desire to eat, constipation, dryness in the mouth and throat, and feeling of fullness after eating. The peeling is occuring on the Stomach/Spleen and Heart regions of the tongue. There’s a bit of heat (redness) on the Heart region indicating that this fluid deficiency is giving rise to a bit of deficiency heat that is usually indicated by bleeding gums, night sweating, malar flush to name a few*.
Because his body is unable to extract nutrients properly and his blood is not being nourished, Liver Blood deficiency can lead to any number of symptoms associated with not enough blood to supply the body*; dizziness, numbness, tingling, blurred vision, muscular weakness, cramps, dry hair and skin, depression and feeling of aimlessness.
Pathologies have a flow on effect. As you can see with the Five Elements table above, a weakness with one organ has a domino effect to the other organs, and in complicated cases, can lead to opposing pathologies. We are trained in TCM to look out for these patterns to treat the underlying cause. In JB’s case, if we treat the Spleen Qi Deficiency then we can help him budge that weight, improve his digestion and subsequent absorption of nutrients and nourishment of blood. It is very common to see Spleen Qi deficiency these days due to our diets, lifestyle and microwaving of food. Happily, with a few small changes we can make a good head start…
What JB can do for himself is what I bang on about to everyone. I’ve outlined a few basic principles about Spleen/Stomach health preservation on my about page (scroll down to dot points). In short:
- Temperature is important; primarily consume food at body temperature or warmer (not piping hot). Room temperature for salads is fine
- Drink a glass of warm water before breakfast to prime your digestion
- Chew your food really well
- Best to avoid damp forming foods for breakfast such as dairy, eggs, orange juice, refined sugar and fuit on it’s own. Since I’ve just killed all your breakfast options you can try my fancy pants breakfast or my awesome oatmeal (or create your own version). Play around with different grain porridges and additions to keep it interesting. Favourites of mine include a quinoa or a brown rice porridge (made with soy or nut milk or water). Try my breakfast burrito made with scrambled tofu. Tofu is technically a damp forming food too, but ok once a week (as are eggs). Other healthful options that may require an adjustment period are: vegetable soup with lentils or beans, miso soup with vegetables and noodles added
- On that note…always eat breakfast – and not at your desk, not driving the car, not reading or watching TV
For Spleen Qi enhancing foods, go for orange / yellow vegetables or of a sweet nature since the Spleen resonates with these vibrations (see Five Elements Theory chart above). Foods with a warming or neutral thermal nurture a deficient Spleen. Examples include:
- well-cooked rice or a congee
- oats
- spelt
- sweet rice
- mochi (pounded sweet rice)
- winter squash
- carrot
- parsnip
- turnip
- chickpeas
- black beans
- peas
- sweet potato
- yam
- pumpkin
Diet and lifestyle aren’t mutually exclusive by the way. There’s no point for JB to be eating certain foods if eating behaviours don’t change also. It doesn’t mean that he has to be militant about it. The aim is to get the body balanced, so your organs are working effectively and when you do have an indulgence, you can bring yourself back into harmony easily. Christmas would be a fine example for most, including myself.
What would expedite JB’s re-balancing is acupuncture and herbs. This is where a good practitioner, someone that you trust and are comfortable with, is a must for health maintenance. Finding such a person is trial and error, and may even require experimenting with different modalities.
No one is perfect but having the right tools to find balance helps escape that maze of health problems a lot of us are trapped in. I am constantly amazed at what we put up with when we don’t have to. It will seem the path to balance is like standing at the bottom of a mountain climb. My Chinese Medicine practitioner said to me Chinese Medicine is like “filling a glass with an eye dropper – one drop at a time”. So with respect to your health, in a few weeks or months you can look back and see how ‘full’ it is, but at the time it feels like nothing is happening. Pep talk completed.
So I will avoid any stereotypical closing statements in reference to New Years’ resolutions. I’m still making up my mind on mine…
*JB hasn’t expressed any of these symptoms. This is to illustrate signs of the named pathologies.
Disclaimer
This is guidance and not intended to replace qualified MD diagnosis and treatment. If you suffer from chronic and serious conditions please consult your doctor and embark on a nutritional therapy in accordance with prescribed medications.
Keep up the good work
Quite an interesting article. Did the ancient Chinese ever have to accommodate anyone without a spleen? Can you develop spleen deficiency without one or is it just assumed that you have a deficiency?
Also, has Chinese medicine changed much in the last 50 years or do they stick with the older time tested formulas of another time?
From a concerned, and not quite whole, fella.
Hey Marc! Good to see you on foodiecure – you’ve been reading lots I see! Excellent question re: no spleen, it’s tricky to explain but I’ll do my best…
A lot of people have their gall bladder or spleen removed and if this is the case, the ‘energy’ is still there, so you can still suffer with Spleen Qi deficiency.
Each of the 12 organs in TCM have corresponding meridian channels (meridians being the network of energy pathways – like blood vessels – that connect the whole body and is what acupuncturists tap into with needles to manipulate the energy). The reason the channels are named after organs such as Spleen, Stomach, Heart etc is that their pathways either originate or end at that particular organ they’re named after. So if the organ is no longer there, the energy pathway still is.
Qi deficiency, excess or stagnation can relate directly to an organ, or to the energy in their corresponding channel. Through observation, trial and error, the TCM practioners of the past realised you can manipulate the energy of the Spleen channel to alleviate digestive related disorders such as nausea, bloating, loose stools, edema etc.
With regards to the alopathic way of looking at no Spleen, it means your immunity is compromised. In TCM immunity is about the Lung Qi (which incidentally has a relationship with Spleen Qi). So in reference to this article, when I talk about ‘loving your spleen’ you can still do that on an energetic level. All the principles remain the same because despite no physical spleen being there digestion is improved with the principles mentioned. If you’re concerned about your immunity then we’d look at ways to improve your Lung Qi (a blog for another time). TCM is a convoluted way of looking at things, but it does make sense once you grasp it.
Another good question re: changes over the past 50 years. Fundamentally the theology has remained the same. TCM is based off the 5 element theory and the Yin and Yang theory. I think with technology and science we have a greater understanding of the physiological function of organs but since we trade in energetics for the most part, then treatment principles have remained. From the studies I have done, we were learning about treatment principles (acupuncture and herbal formulas) that are centuries old, but the nature of TCM means that each practitioner has their own unique way. For example, I’m a more gentle practitioner while some of my classmates like to needle really hard or use more needles or have more complex herbal formulas. Likewise with patients, some like it hard while others – like myself – prefer a gentler treatment (no pun intended!).
Hope that has helped clarify some of your questions
[...] Nurturing the spleen. This is a concept spoken a lot about in Chinese Medicine. I write about this a lot, here’s a good post here [...]
Thanks nice article. Do you offer your homemade TCM study tool as a pdf? Cool chart, just began studying TCM @ 8 months ago.
Blessings .. I discovered that my dependent edema is related to Spleen deficiency. From reading your article it sounds like I’m heading int he right direction towards resolving the health issue. I use to begin my morning with raw apples and pears. I’ve switched to ginger tea and glutten-free oatmeal. Thank you
Yes, the Spleen and odema are very intimately connected in Chinese Medicine and with a little effort on choosing the right foods, eating for the seasons and a couple of other mindful eating principles outlined in the About pages of this blog you can certainly assist your Spleen/digestion to do it’s job. Happy to hear you’ve switched the raw apples and pears first thing int he morning to more warming and nurturing foods. Oats are fabulous for the spleen first thing in the morning, gentle on the digestion (just make sure its cooked with water not milk) and sweet in nature. Sweet resonates with the Spleen helping it perform it’s job – but I’m not talking about sickly sugar sweet – and breakfast time of 7 – 9am is the time when the Spleen is at it’s most strongest so getting breakky right, to me, is getting your day started right. All the best! x
Can you tell if having dried organic apples as a sweetener ok with oatmeal? I seem to crave sweet after a meal. I have ginger cookies that are gluten, wheat and dairy-free (Pamela”s Ginger cookies w/almond slices.
Technically no, but it depends on how strict you want to go with it. And that’s really up to you and how you feel and any ailments (if any) that you’re trying to clear up. If you are going to have it, apples are on the “ok if you have to” list. It sounds very yummy, I might try it too!
Craving sweet after a meal is usually a sign of spleen deficiency. Try having a chamomile tea or other herbal tea (without sweetener of course). It won’t satisfy you if you’re still having sugar during the day because of the significant addictive nature of sugar. The only way to combat that is do give up sugar for a while. It helped me a lot with this craving. And the cravings have only come back in the past few days since I’ve been eating more sugar than I have in the past 3 months (thanks to PMS!)
You can try baking your own cookies using the naturally derived xylitol – Sarah Wilson says that this is ok because it doesn’t give you the sugar-addiction loop.
Hi! I would like to say thanks for your blog and information on what to eat for a healthy spleen. I am a Singaporean Chinese and seeing Chinese practitioners on a regular basis are a way of life here for us. But so far, my Chinese doc hasn’t recommended healthy foods for me to eat so your blog is a great help. Thanks again.
Hi Judy, thanks for your feedback…this is good to know and I’ll make sure I blog more about it. x
[...] winding up my Liver, and drying out my Lungs. If you remember the 5 element theory I blogged about here you can see the relationship between spring, wind and liver. How is this effecting my lungs? When [...]
Hi ive got a spleen weakness i tend to be quite run down a lot i also bloat and cant eat wheat products can you help?
Hi there, the way we look at the Spleen in TCM is that it is central to digestion – even though the stomach physically receives the food. To treat the Spleen via dietary therapy is eat simply- no complex meals – chew thoroughly, warm drink and food. Primarily eat broth based soups and congees. I recently got onto pro biotics which I am finding very beneficial to digestion (spleen/stomach) system. Steer clear of sugar including fruit sugar for a while since sweet weakens the spleen.
Even though this doesn’t make sense in a western medicine way, treating the spleen based off TCM principles sees a direct correlation to helping spleen ailments in a allopathic medicine sense.
Make sure you go through the channels by getting a check up to rule out something more chronic.
Let me know how you go!
Hi i just realise i have being suffering from spleen deficiency. I am always weak and usually need rest after eating. I bloat a lot, always suffer from constipation and lose stool. I would like to know the relationship to PCOS. I usually have tommy pains, i feel weak and under duress. But in my own case i don’t have tongue peels, but white coatings.